Don't Make Me Stop Now: Stories

Don't Make Me Stop Now: Stories

From Publishers Weekly Love's unfortunate side effects dominate the majority of stories in Parker's latest (after If You Want Me to Stay), in which characters, haunted by romances past, are frequently driven to extremes. In "I Will Clean Your Attic," Laura, desperate for companionship after her husband leaves her, befriends handyman B.R. Bradshaw after a freak winter storm buries her Southern town in snow and ice. In "Muddy Water, Turn to Wine," college dropout James, who is just beginning to recover from a year-old breakup, takes waitress Erin on a road trip to her father's funeral the morning after their one-night stand. In "The Right to Remain," Sanderson is so devastated by the departure of his girlfriend that he burns his house down in a bid to win back her affection. Though most stories sympathetically treat emotionally wounded or stunted characters, "Hidden Meanings, Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the song 'Ain't Gonna Bump No More No Big Fat Woman' " is an unwieldy one-off in the form of a critical essay penned by a jilted woman. Parker's prose is pristine, but readers may tire of similarly suffering protagonists. (Jan.) Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. These eleven arresting, comic, and moving stories by acclaimed writer Michael Parker testify to the driving force of love, the lengths to which we?l go to claim it and pursue it, the delusions we?l float to keep it going, the torment that goes part and parcel with it. And despite all of the above, the absolute necessity of it, no matter its consequences. Whether it? a college student undone by the boy who leaves her, or the boyfriend intent on leveling old scores from high school for his lover, or the husband who discovers-in the grocery store-the woman he should have been with all along, every character, no matter how off track, wants to believe in debt and credit and payback and making the messy world-and the messy world of love-turn out neatly. From Booklist Diverse characters struggle with failed relationships, alcoholism, emotional abuse, and guilt and are propelled by beliefs of what they must do to achieve redemption. Parker's follow-up to If You Want Me to Stay (2005) is an engaging collection of stories, most of which explore the devastating nature of love. In the affecting "I Will Clean Your Attic," despondent southerner Laura discovers consolation from a source as unexpected as the blizzard that has her trapped in her house. In "Everything Was Paid For," a small-town drug dealer is fiercely intent on payback for his maligned lover. Reunited couples "wretched in love," a delusional husband falling back in love (though not with his wife), a love-starved college dropout--all are subjects in Parker's adept and subtly amusing tales. Accompanied by witty dialogue, the dozen stories are generally cohesive, although a parody of student writing, albeit funny, isn't as sympathetic as the rest. Readers may anticipate a recurrent conflict as the stories progress, but they will certainly savor the effortless narrative flow and compelling emotional tenor. Leah StraussCopyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved Review ?n prose that is languid and mysterious . . . Parker writes descriptions as precise as line engravings, more revealing than recordings or photographs.